The WHO Country Office in Czechia and WHO/Europe, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Czechia, will hold a 3-day workshop dedicated to enhancing hospital resilience against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats. This event is funded by the European Union through the EU4Health CBRN Action aimed at enhancing public health capacities in Ukraine, neighbouring countries and beyond.
As the Region faces evolving global health security challenges, the ability of hospital systems to manage CBRN emergencies – particularly chemical, radiological and nuclear incidents – is critical. This workshop is an essential component of a 3-year joint CBRN Action with the objective of adapting WHO’s key hospital preparedness tools to CBRN contexts and using them to support countries in the European Region to enhance their emergency preparedness. The workshop content, based on existing gold-standard tools and previous phases of desk review and peer exchange, is developed to address specific national health system needs in Czechia, while ensuring that hospital protocols for patient safety and service continuity align with international best practices and surge capacity requirements.
The workshop is designed to progress from strategic theory to technical and practical application, culminating in a hands-on simulation:
- Day 1: Strategic foundations – establishing a comprehensive approach to CBRN preparedness at the institutional level;
- Day 2: Technical deep dive – focused sessions on managing specific chemical, radiological and nuclear hazards; and
- Day 3: Simulation exercise – a functional assessment using the Emergo Train System, in which participants will respond to a CBRN scenario, practising triage, decontamination and resource allocation in real time.
The event targets a multidisciplinary cohort of approximately 50 participants, including hospital administrators, emergency managers and frontline medical and nursing staff, as well as distinguished technical experts from the Czech Ministry of Health, the State Office for Nuclear Safety and the National Radiation Protection Institute, guest speakers sharing experiences from other countries, including Ukraine and the United Kingdom, and WHO, as well as certified international Emergo trainers.
A key objective of the workshop is to enable hospitals to continue delivering services and deal with caseloads in the event of CBRN emergencies.
This initiative reinforces the integration of national standards with international emergency frameworks, ensuring that the Czech health-care system remains robust in the face of complex hazards.